Tree windthrow and forest soil turnover

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Abstract
Soil turnover as a result of tree windthrow has an important influence on soil development and plant distribution in forests. Estimates of the time needed for soil turnover in a given area are often made, but unless these take into account the potential for reestablishment of canopy trees onto sites previously affected by windthrow, they are likely to substantially underestimate turnover time. Soil turnover is not a regular, uniform process, but rather results in a mosaic of soils with different turnover histories. Because soil turnover follows an exponential decay model, some area of soil will never be turned over. As it is therefore not possible to define the time when all the soil in an area has been turned over, it is proposed that soil turnover half-life (the time at which half the soil has been turned over) be used as a measure of soil turnover.